


daylight could be so violent

by lulla_lunekjaer



Category: The Ever Afters Series - Shelby Bach
Genre: All the tagged characters are dead so, F/F, Rory's not even in this fic what am I doing with my life, and it made me think of the fandom bicycle tag, more like the fandom object of desire since they're like fourteen, proper spacing and formatting what proper spacing and formatting hahahaha, when I tagged that last bit it said SHIP DARCY WITH ALL THE THINGS, which I realized Rory is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6189691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lulla_lunekjaer/pseuds/lulla_lunekjaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mildred Grubb, remembered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	daylight could be so violent

**Author's Note:**

> Mildred doesn't get enough love. Neither does Sebastian, or Solange, and it is the dual goal of @smolqueernerds and myself to right those wrongs and make femslash the dominant AO3 category for the Ever Afters.
> 
>  
> 
> title from "No Light, No Light" by Florence+the Machine

She had thought it was over. That Solange and everything that went with her could be shoved away into a glass mountain in her mind, that she wouldn’t have to deal with this anymore. Mildred Grubb had not been wrong about Solange many times in her life, but this was one of them. She would always cause trouble for Millie.

 

The first thing that struck Mildred upon learning about the new Triumvirate was how surprisingly similar it all was. She was so like a young Solange, so sure of right and wrong, so ready for it all, so naive of the consequences. Lena was Mildred in miniature, eager to do her part to help. Chase was, at first glance, nothing like Sebastian. Sebastian was never so brash, never so cruel, but Mildred watched, and she waited, and she saw the Chase that he presented to his friends, the way he would die for them, and she remembered the Sebastian that he showed the world.

 

Mildred Grubb, the daughter of a farmer, was never supposed to be a part of any war. She was supposed to help with farm chores and grow up and get married to another farmer, a rich one if she was lucky, and have children who would grow up to be farmers and marry farmers and so the wheel would turn.

Mildred Grubb was not supposed to be a hero. She was one anyway.

 

Mildred slept a hundred years away, and while she slept, her best friend worked.

Solange spent her time wisely, garnering support from all corners of the world. She strengthened her power, read about all the old grievances. She listened to the monsters, the Fey, the trolls, the witches, she listened and sympathized with them. When the time was right, she struck.

She offered them the world. She didn’t want it. Her whole world slept far away behind briars.

 

Mildred slept, and she dreamt. Visions of Sebastian and Solange danced on her eyelids, and she smiled in her sleep. She dreamed of when they met, Sebastian perched in a tree, Solange confident and radiant in the afternoon sun. She dreamed of learning German, the look of Sebastian's face as she switched over to his home language in the middle of a conversation. She remembered Solange correcting her French pronunciation, of her laughing and tucking a golden curl behind Mildred's ear. She dreamed of sitting with them around a campfire, laughing in the night air, looking up at the stars, back in the days when they could do anything and nothing could ever stop them. She dreamed of running into Iron Hans on their quest for the Pounce Pot, of the mint poultice he made for Sebastian's sprained ankle, of Sebastian sleeping against Solange, head in her lap. The way she stroked his hair, looking up at Mildred. The way they huddled together in the cave while it stormed outside. Then Sebastian started to snore, and they laughed and laughed. She dreamt that Solange had found a way to lift the spell Arica had placed on him, that they were waiting for her just beyond the wall of briars.

 

And then, she woke up.

Mildred didn’t believe them when they told her. She faced Solange on the battlefield, Sebastian by her side, and asked her what he would think if he could see them now. Solange looked right at her, and her gaze was cold. It shifted off Mildred, slightly to the right, and she thrust out her hand. Donald was dead before he hit the ground. Mildred dropped next to him, screaming, was all of it for nothing, did none of it mean anything, is this what all those years together had come to?

The King of the Unseelie Court himself performed the binding oath for her. She swore on her heart to do anything and everything she could to stop the Snow Queen. It didn’t matter anymore. Her heart was already broken twice over.

 

Years went by. They fought, they hid, they died.

Mildred joined the Canon. There, she met James Vejcik.

He was Destined to stop her. That’s what it said. They picked over the prophecies for hours.

Stop is such an objective word, they said.

You could stop her in her tracks, Mildred said. She could stop and turn back to us.

I could stop her entirely, he said. I might have to kill her.

Whatever it takes for this to be over, they agreed.

James’ brother’s name was John, but he was called Jack even before climbing the beanstalk. Cal hadn’t been his son, but he had cried anyway.

 

In the end, James had stopped her. She was stuck in the Glass Mountain. In the end, that’s all his life was worth.

Mildred walked the corridors of Ever After School, retracing her footsteps from a million trips before. She sat at Sebastian’s feet at cried. They had died. Mildred had survived.

 

She had thought there wouldn’t be anyone else left for her to lose, but she was wrong. There were always more for her to lose, and if not, more for other people to lose.

In the battle, she went to their aid. Mildred remembered being that young. She was no longer young. She had slept for a hundred years and lived for a hundred more. She was tired. The wolves went right for her students. Mildred remembered that first week after Sebastian, and she leapt in front of them.


End file.
